Questions about the meaning and purpose of life are central to human existence. Every area of the Rhodes curriculum touches in some way upon such questions, whether directly as in moral philosophy, epic poetry, and political thought, or indirectly as in studies of political and social history, economic theory, and the physical structure of the universe. Our F1 courses help students think about these issues and so provide the foundation for the entire curriculum.
F1 courses meet in small groups led by faculty members to analyze challenging and controversial texts that have shaped and reshaped thought. Because of its prominence in world history, these courses pay special attention to the Bible and the traditions that have emerged in relationship to it. F1 courses endeavor to make the familiar unfamiliar by examining critically the logical and historical foundations of received opinions and texts. They also make the unfamiliar familiar by studying traditions, artifacts, and issues that most students have not yet encountered. Students learn to appreciate the role of historical context in shaping values, beliefs, and practices and to reflect critically on their own values, beliefs, and practices. All F1 courses stress skills that are central to the whole curriculum: careful reading, analytical writing, critical thinking, and discussion.
At the start of their first year in the College, students choose a first-year F1 sequence to complete over the Fall and Spring of that year; they complete a third-semester F1 course later in their Rhodes careers. The following descriptions clarify the differences between the F1 sequences.
F1 Courses
AMS 110 and 111: Pathways of Cultural Knowledge
As societies inherit and then redefine their own cultural realities, they also accumulate selective knowledge that is important in shaping their religious, political, and philosophical identities. But how is this cultural knowledge transmitted usefully and memorably to others? While reading an eclectic range of texts including biblical works, heroic epics, philosophical treatises, modern performance poetry, and more, we will explore varied communication strategies in oral storytelling, written manuscripts and papyri, printed texts, and even sign language and the internet. This multi-disciplinary approach opens a space for us to critically examine our own biases and to recognize the value and meaning in complex texts emerging from diverse cultures, religious perspectives, media, and time periods. Through this work, we will achieve the aims of the F1: 1) to engage students in a critical examination of the values they hold as individuals and their social and historical location, through exploration of the complex legacies of formative texts and traditions, and 2) to offer academically sound and comprehensive exploration of biblical texts and of traditions that are productively compared with them.
GREK 110 and 111: Introduction to Ancient Greek
This coordinated two-semester sequence of courses introduces students to the fundamentals of the ancient Greek language through a sustained and substantial direct engagement with the Bible, both the Septuagint (the Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible and Deuterocanonical books) and the Greek New Testament. In addition to preparing students for Greek 203, the aim of which is the development of intermediate proficiency in the reading, writing, and speaking of Koine Greek, this introductory sequence engages students in a critical examination of personal, social, and cultural values through the academic study of biblical literature. The three-course sequence (GREK 110, 111, and 203) fulfills not only the F1, through the comprehensive study of the Bible, but also the F10, through the study of the ancient Greek language.
HIST 101 and 102: Sacred Histories
The courses in the Sacred Histories curriculum, HIST 101 and HIST 102, are taught by faculty in the Department of History, whose expertise spans Africa, Asia, Europe, Latin America, the Mediterranean and the Middle East, and the United States. As such, the Department’s F1 courses place biblical texts and their reception in a broader historical context beyond the confines of Western tradition. These courses engage not only with Jewish and Christian scriptures, but also with Buddhist, Hindu, and Islamic sacred texts. History’s F1 curriculum takes innovative, intersectional approaches that explore how gender, ethnicity, religion, and socio-economic status shaped people’s values. Often these courses examine marginalized populations and minority groups, those who existed on the periphery and whose voices have often been silenced in the dominant historical record. The Department of History also offers several courses that fulfill the third-semester F1 requirement. Those courses have included “The History of Environmental Thought,” “The Bible and Empire,” “Food, Gender, and Culture,” “Women in Islam,” and “Modern Islamic Thought,” among others.
HUM 101 and 102: SEARCH
Search is a three-semester Humanities sequence that traces the emergence of the Western canon, starting in the ancient Near East and ending in the modern world. Students will consider the fundamental questions of human existence: What is a good life? What is happiness? What is the meaning of death? Students will come up with their own answers to these questions as they explore the answers of different civilizations in different time periods. The course is interdisciplinary, meaning that students encounter the work of different fields and literary genres: epic poetry, sacred texts (the Hebrew Bible, the New Testament, the Qur'an, and others), history, tragedy, philosophy, and much more. We interrogate central texts within, and written in contestation of, western intellectual traditions, including Christianity, Judaism, and Islam. The texts we study over the course of our three semesters speak directly to each other, often radically critiquing the traditions out of which they emerge. Throughout, we stress the skills that are central to the whole curriculum (careful reading, analytical writing, critical thinking and discussion), and we equip students to enter into a lively and lifelong conversation of ideas.
RELS 101 and 102: Life Then and Now
The Life: Then and Now program is a three-course sequence. The first courses (RELS 101 & 102) are taken in the Fall and Spring of the first year. These courses introduce students to the academic study of the Bible and its cultural relevance throughout history. Students are able to choose from different topical courses that engage with the Bible. Examples of past courses include: “The Bible and Islam,” “The Bible and the Afterlife,” “The Bible and Gender and Sexuality,” and “The Bible and Black Women’s Experiences.” Students do not need to have any prior familiarity with the Bible to take these courses.
The third course (any 200-level course in the catalogue with an F1) may be taken at any time in the remaining three years of the student’s college career. These courses build on the skills and knowledge developed in the first year of the sequence, sometimes in conversation with non-biblical texts and traditions. Past course offerings have included “Mass Incarceration,” “Jesus: Then and Now,” “Pain, Suffering, and Death,” “Religion and Science Fiction,” “Holocaust,” “Islam,” “Religion in America,” and “Buddhism.” Students can select the third Life course that best suits their interests and overall academic plan.